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Update on US politics

James Comey is out and a special prosecutor is in

President Donald Trump at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference.

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Supplied by Wikimedia

Another month has gone by and things still haven’t calmed down in the realm of American politics.

One of the most significant things to have happened this month was President Trump’s announcement that the United States would be pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement (PCA). The PCA is a worldwide agreement to prevent the global temperature from rising more than two degrees in the next couple decades. Not including the US, all but two countries signed the deal in 2015.

The long term consequences of Trump pulling the US out of the PCA are fairly unknown at the moment because of how momentous it is. With that being said, scientists are predicting two major issues that could arise from this decision. The first is in relation to the fact that under the Obama administration, US carbon emission were steadily decreasing. Now, under Trump’s administration, even a plateau in the decrease could lead to global temperatures rising a tenth of a degree in the upcoming years. Another fear is that the US – as a global superpower – becoming laxer on carbon emission laws will influence other countries to do the same.

In other news, both former FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified under oath in front of Senate about Comey’s firing.

Trump told Comey he hoped he would drop the investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Evident in the way he spoke and his body language, Comey seemed to believe it was more of an order than a hope. Additionally, we learned that there might be tapes of the conversations — as alleged by Trump in a tweet — something Comey would likely be happy about since there would then be substantial proof.

From Sessions’ testimony, we learned that he does not recall ever speaking to a Russian ambassador. In fact, throughout the testimony he passionately denied all the allegations against him in relation to collusion with Russia.

In the latest news, President Trump tweeted last week that he is being investigated for obstruction of justice by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller because of his firing of Comey. This is significant because obstruction of justice is what Bill Clinton was impeached for in 1999.

The future in the US is as tumultuous as ever and it is impossible to know what the next couple weeks may bring.

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